


An Old Man and His Sketches

by aimarooney



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-11 00:57:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18419522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimarooney/pseuds/aimarooney
Summary: Request by: @littlecrazyfangirl-98 (on tumblr) Steve/Reader (maybe pre-relationship): You are curious person you you can’t help but take a look into Steve’s drawing blog, you are surprised to find that he seems to draw mostly you lately.





	An Old Man and His Sketches

There’s a small cafe beside your apartment that you like to spend your limited free time at. You have also gotten many of your teammates to frequent it as well. So what were you expected to do? They hadn’t noticed you sitting in a booth, reading a book when you overheard Steve asking Nat for some advice on what sounded like an art blog. You couldn’t just have the information that Steve was out there posting artwork that he rarely shared, you had to see them for yourself.

It wasn’t an easy thing to find, you had been tempted to either just ask Steve or Natasha because it was looking hopeless. But you finally came across a blog that was very simple in design, with the title ‘Old Man and his Sketches’. You chuckle seeing that, you had said that to him one day when he wouldn’t let you look at what he was drawing. You immediately knew you were right, that it’s Steve’s blog, the most recent post is a portrait of no other than you. You are quite thrown off by it, not believing that he had drawn you.

You are pretty sure you know when he must have drawn it, last week you two were sitting in his living room, you were half watching a movie and half just talking to Steve, who was focused on his sketchbook. He had refused to let you see it, and you remember joking that he was probably drawing something inappropriate. His whole face went red, you had assumed it was just because he was embarrassed at the thought, but now you are wondering if it was because it was you he was drawing.

As you continue to scroll through his blog you are shocked by just how many of them are of you, not saying there isn’t a fair amount of other people and he had some gorgeous landscapes, but there are many of you scattering his blog, some you could tell were draw while watching you but there are others that are cleaner and more detailed, like he drew them from memory or pictures of you. You also couldn’t help but think his drawings of you looked better then the person who looked back at you in the mirror. Is this what you look like to Steve? Or does he just make his drawings look nicer for the aesthetic?

As you continue to scroll through his blog, you notice there is definitely a point where he had begun to draw you, as you begin to see less of your own face on his blog. You still scrolled through, and are amazed with his art, you are enjoying seeing how much he has grown in his artwork over the years. Your favorite thing was his first posts that were some old drawings he still had from the 40’s.

“Hey!” You hear Steve’s voice in the small cafe, your head shoots up. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you, but I have been standing here for almost a minute and you seem very focused. What’s so interesting on that computer of yours?”

You immediately panic. “Umm, I am-I just”

Steve chuckles a bit sitting down across from you. “What, are you looking at something inappropriate?”

Now was your turn to blush at the comment. “No! No. Um,” You decided to only tell a half lie, “A fan just sent me a link to someone who has an incredible art blog and they have some amazing pieces of me up. I mean they make me look better than I actually do.”

“I doubt even the best artist could do that.” If your face wasn’t red before, it sure as hell was now. “Can I see?”

“You don’t even need to! Look at me and, Bam! That’s basically the artworks!” You joke hoping he doesn’t push to actually see the blog.

“Come on!” Steve pouts. “As an artist I love seeing others works!”

Well there goes that. So you scroll back up to the top and find one of your favorites of you. You pull that one up and turn your laptop so Steve can see. “This is my favorite of the ones they did of me.”

You see poor Steve go completely pale. “Oh, umm, wow this is really good. But nowhere near as good as you look.”

“Steve.” You half whine, half sigh. You get some confidence and look up at him. “You really should give yourself more credit. You’re an incredible artist.”

Steve looks more shocked then you could have ever imagined.

“Old Man and his Sketches,” you say as a way to confirm to him you do know it’s him work.

“It’s not-” Steve starts to deny it, but seeing the smirk on your face he stops. “How did you even find it.”

“Well,” You aren’t sure what to say. “I might have overheard you telling Nat about an art blog and I got curious. It took a few days of searching but i found it, knew it was yours from the title. Glad to help you out”

Steve lightly smiles at your last comment but you can tell he seems either worried or uncomfortable.

“I’m sorry if I violated your personal space. I know I shouldn’t have but I got curious. You are always so secretive with your art.”

“Honestly, I probably would have done the same thing.” Steve admits. “I am not that secretive, you just always seemed to ask when I was drawing you, and I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable. I am sorry if I crossed any boundaries by drawing you.”

You chuckle at that, you always did have bad timing. “Maybe if your drawings made me look bad, I would yell at you, but Steve, your art is beautiful.”

“I think it was more the subject matter in those pieces.” Steve says tentatively causing you to blush.

After that you had taken to checking his blog every so often. You couldn’t deny you were quite disappointed when you noticed he had only put up a few more drawing of you up. But they were more finished works then the quick sketches you had seen before. You figured that it was probably because now he knew that you could see them, but it still was sad.

After a month there weren’t any new ones of you. You knew you were being a bit over dramatic to be so upset but after the amount he had drawn of you, you are just confused about what caused him to stop. It’s been awhile since he had uploaded any new art at all. From when he had first started the blog there was something new at the very least once a week. It has been three weeks and there was nothing. You hadn’t even seen much of him lately, and you were honestly a little worried about him.

You decide to bake a large batch of chocolate chip cookies to take over to his apartment and check in on him. Fortunately, you live in the same apartment building as Steve so you didn’t have to go far, just a few floors up to see him. You knock on his door, hoping he’s home. You are about to give up when he finally opened the door.

“Hey,” Steve greets with a small smile. He didn’t look bad, I mean he was Steve freaking Rogers, of course he didn’t look bad. But if you are being honest with yourself he didn’t really look good either. He has paint on his arms and shirt, charcoal smudges covering his hands and fingers. His hair is a mess, as if he has been running his hands through it over and over again. He looks tired, maybe not sleep deprived, but just exhausted. “Whatcha got there?”

“Oh I made cookies and thought I would share. Haven’t seen much of you lately.” You smile, holding out the container of cookies.

“Well come on in, sorry it’s a bit of a mess right now.” Steve smiles at you, stepping to the side so you could step into his apartment. You could not have been prepared for the sight in front of you. Steve was also a clean person, but now he had turned his dining room into a mini art studio. There are different media spread across the table, multiple canvas’ lining the walls, at various stages of completion. He has sketch pads laying everywhere. But what broke your heart the most was all the crumpled pieces of paper that scattered his apartment and they really are everywhere. You could tell he would get mad at certain pieces because they were wedged on a bookshelf in the living room or on top of the stove in the kitchen.

“Steve,” You breath out taking in everything you’re seeing. You set the cookies on the counter and lean down to pick up the closest crumpled sketch. You slowly unfold it, and are surprised with what you see. It is a portrait of you, and it is better than anything you have seen of his before.

“I told you it was a mess.” He tells you, ignoring the artwork in your hands, instead opening the cookies and taking one. “These are delicious”

“And this,” You gesture to the paper in your hand, “is amazing. I don’t understand why this is part of the throwaways. What is wrong with these?”

You reach down and open up another one. This one is only half complete but it was still amazing, this time it’s of Bucky.

“None of them are doing justice to what I see.” Steve mutters, looking down and kicking one at his feet.

“Well let me tell you, I have this view everyday in the mirror, and can assure you this is beyond amazing Steve.”

“It really isn’t though. Nothing I create lately is working. I can’t get anything on paper the way I see it.”

“Would a model help?” You ask shyly. You hate seeing Steve like this and want to be able to do anything to help him out of his own head. “I mean maybe if you are seeing what you are trying to create in front of you, it might make it easier?”

“Can’t hurt anything at this point.” Steve mutters. He takes another cookie, offering you one before stepping over to his table of art. He grabs a blank canvas and his paints, then sets up an easel. He then pulls up a chair for you to sit on, which you do, finishing your cookie.

“Alright so how would you like me to sit?” You ask him, “I have done a little modeling for art students in college.”

“Honestly sit however you are most comfortable.” Steve tells you, “Though I am curious, what did you model for?”

“Just some nude modeling for the college classes on the weekends.” You say with a light smirk. Steve’s face goes a little red and his eyes widen. “What? They paid nicely for a broke college student.”

“Well, um, you-uh-you can keep your clothes on for today” Steve stutters.

“If that’s what you want.” You smirk. You notice the shade of red on Steve’s face darken a little. “There is always tomorrow.”

You didn’t think Steve could get any redder, but there he was in front of you. He stutters out “No, that’s- that’s- not what I meant.” 

All that does is cause your smik to grow. “Don’t worry Rogers, I am just messing with you.. Unless you want to.”

Steve just sends you a small glare for teasing him. He has already started to paint onto the canvas. You sit there as still as possible for him.

You watch Steve have incredible focus, looking up every so often. You can tell he is getting frustrated, his eyebrows are furrowed and his lips are turned into a frown.

“How’m I lookin’?” You ask him, hoping to pull him out of his own head.

“You look great,” Steve assures you, trailing off, “this painting on the other hand.”

“Can I see it?” You ask him tentatively.

“Sure, I am sorry, it’s not very good” Steve says, turning the canvas towards you. You are left speechless sitting there.

“Steve, I-” You try to get out your thoughts “It’s beautiful, wow”

“It’s not though. It only vaguely looks like you.” Steve grumbles. “I don’t know why I can’t seem to get anything right lately. It’s like my ability has disappeared.”

“Well we must be looking at two different paintings because this is honestly beyond anything I have seen you do. It could be like my hot twin.”

“It really couldn’t be.” Steve pushe and you can see him getting frustrated so you stand up and walk towards him.

“I don’t understand why you aren’t seeing it as I do.” You look up sadly at him.

“Because,” Steve let out a heavy sigh. “You are the hot twin. I can’t get any of these to look right, none of them capture your beauty. How you completely light up when you are excited or happy, how stunning your smile is; and contagious too. You smile and no matter what, I am immediately smiling. I just can’t capture you on the page. And I just want my art to do you justice, but there isn’t a way to make this canvas and paint show how great and passionate and caring you are. It feels like I am trying to paint the impossible.”

If you thought you were at a loss for words before, you are dumbstruck now. You just stand there looking at Steve trying to figure out what to say to him. “I-” You start but are still at a loss for words. You notice Steve’s panicked expression but before you can try to reassure him he is apologizing.

“Sorry,” Steve rushes out, “I didn’t mean to say all that, I mean I meant it but, I didn’t need to throw that all at you-”

“No Steve.” You stop him, your brain finally engaging enough to respond to him. “I just needed to process what you just said. Make sure my brain wasn’t playing tricks on me.” Steve just looks at you, he has relaxed slightly but you can tell he is still ready to bolt. You take a step towards him, placing a hand on his arms to hold him in place. “You really think I’m the hot twin?”

Steve chuckles lightly. “Yeah, I do.”

“That’s good,” You smile big at him, “because if you had a twin, I would definitely think you were the better half.”

Steve finally relaxed fully, smiling at you.

“Alright, now you have a painting to finish.” You smile at him, looking towards the canvas in front of you. “And post on your neglected blog.”

Steve sighs, “I think there is only a few final touches left.”

“Can I watch?” You ask him, standing beside him as he is already starting to add some small details.

“Of course” Steve says without taking his eyes off the canvas. It doesn’t take you very long to think the painting was fully finished.

“I love it,” You tell him leaning against his arm. You feel him relax under you.

“Do you, really?” He asks still unsure.

“Yes. It’s beautiful.” You assure him. “Now time to post.”

“You can’t even give it time to dry?” Steve laughs lightly.

“Nope.” You smile at him.

“Fine.” Steve steps away from you and grabs his camera. He then starts to move the canvas around, searching for the best spot for lighting and he takes a few different photos. “Now I need to get them on my computer to upload and post them.”

“Well let’s get to it!” You grab the cookies and follow him into the living room. Sitting on the couch beside him, you watch him upload the photo to his blog. Quickly, you get on your phone and pull up his blog. “And look you already have your first like.” You tell him as you click the like button.

“Thank you.” Steve smiles at you.

“Of course. Anything for an old man and his sketches” You joke.


End file.
